Toyota Is Working On Batteries With Over 900 Miles Of Range | The Morning Shift

You might think that while automakers like Ford and Audi have raced to electrify their vehicle lineup, Toyota has been dragging its feet – after all, the company only launched its first all-electric model last year. Today, though, the Japanese automaker is trying to convince you otherwise, with a host of new tech announcements, including solid-state batteries that could power its future EVs for more than 900 miles.

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According to Automotive News, the Prius maker has outlined new technologies that it hopes to pack into its future EVs, which might help it leapfrog the competition. The announcement came just a day after shareholders announced a vote against company chairman Akio Toyoda due to his lackluster efforts to electrify the firm.

Among the most interesting announcements are those solid-state batteries, next-gen power packs that are widely seen as the key to super-long-range electric cars. Toyota says the solid-state batteries will arrive from 2027 and could unlock a range of up to 932 miles on a single charge. That’s enough to get from Philadelphia to Montreal and back. The solid-state batteries will be the final step in a long line of battery developments from Toyota. Automotive News reports:

They kick off with a next-generation lithium ion power pack that will double the range the current power pack used in the current bZ4X electric crossover. The new battery will deliver driving ranges of 621 miles, [Keiji Kaita, Toyota’s top battery guru and the president of its carbon neutral advanced engineering development center] said.

It will cost 20 percent less than Toyota’s current EV batteries and will be able to recharge from a 10 percent charge to 80 percent in less than 20 minutes. Toyota compared those targets with the bZ4X battery’s range of 382 miles and a 30-minute charging time.

The bZ4x is Toyota’s only EV right now. Photo: Toyota

This will be followed by a bipolar lithium iron phosphate battery in 2026, which Toyota promises will boost range by 20 percent and could be 40 percent cheaper to produce. Following that, Toyota will offer a nickel-based bipolar lithium-ion battery, which will add a further ten percent range boost up to around 621 miles per charge.

Each of these batteries will be fitted to the 1.7 million EVs that Toyota hopes to sell by 2030. These cars, Toyota claims, will feature new designs that work to reduce drag and maximize efficiency. They will also have a “software focus,” which Automotive News explains means a barrage of over-the-air updates to keep the cars running smoothly.

Finally, to build all these new cars and batteries, Toyota is investing in its production facilities. One idea it is working on will see EVs drive themselves around the site, rather than running along an anchored production line.

The process, which is already in use to some extent in the construction of the bZ4X, sees “the car drive to the parts, rather than bringing the parts to the car.”